Almost £1m earmarked to feed Kirklees' children eligible for free school meals is missing, it is claimed.

Research by academics at Northumbria University estimates £88m allocated to local councils to provide lunch for disadvantaged youngsters has disappeared in just one year.

Pupils eligible for free school meals have a daily entitlement, which they can claim by using their thumb print. Some schools use a smart card.

However, if the pupil on free school meals is absent or doesn't spend the full amount, their entitlement is wiped to zero to prevent credit building up.

Research by the academics for the Hungry For Change project estimates £912,384 allocated to Kirklees Council's children in 2016/17 was never used.

The researchers found almost 20% of government allocated funds had not been spent due to the pupils being absent.

It is not known how much is lost when pupils don't spend their daily allocation of £2.05.

So far nobody has been able to find out where the "missing" money goes. It is presumed similar sums of lost funding will be discovered for more recent years.

A typical Kirklees school dinner (Image: publicity picture)

Professor Greta Defeyter at Northumbria University said: “Free school meal funding is administered by local authorities, with many secondary schools using smart cards to manage these payments.

"Secondary school pupils who are in receipt of free school meals have money credited to their smart cards to pay for their daily meals.

“At the end of each day, the card is wiped of its credit. This means if a pupil is absent from school, misses lunch or does not use the full monetary entitlement, it is removed from the pupils account.

“In contrast, where parents pay for their child’s meals, any unspent credit remaining on their card at the end of the day rolls over and accumulates.

“What happens to this money?”

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Her colleague, Professor Paul Stretesky said the national figure of £88.3 million was likely to be conservative as their data only captured information on pupils who were absent from school on the census date and does not include pupils who skipped lunch or those who did not spend their full daily entitlement.

Furthermore, this analysis is based solely on pupils in receipt of means-tested free school meals and does not look at meals not taken under the universal infant free school meal programme.

What is happening to the unspent free school meals cash?

Prof Defeyter and Stretesky say the process of wiping cards for some pupils and not others is effectively a two-tier system of treatment.

Prof Defeyter added: “We potentially have a situation where the most disadvantaged in our society are subsidising the meals of those who are better off.”

The scandal was raised in the House of Commons last week by veteran Labour MP Frank Field.

However, Nadhim Zahawi, minister for children and families, said the matter was up to local councils themselves.

A spokesperson for Kirklees Council said: "School meals are vitally important and our not-for-profit service runs at a very high standard.

"This means we are helping children to live healthy lifestyles and we are also having a positive impact on their achievements and outcomes.

"The figures from Northumbria University are difficult to substantiate as they are based on a single day in 2017 and make the assumption that the whole year’s numbers would remain the same, which is very unlikely.

"All schools are able to select their own meal provider and the Kirklees Catering Service is just one of several catering companies operating in the district.

"Our in-house service is a not-for-profit organisation and is motivated solely by our desire to provide excellent choice and nutrition.

"We closely monitor free school meal uptake and provide feedback to schools when allocations are not used so that they can encourage children to take a full meal, which should always be the case.

"We also work with partners to offer free breakfast clubs in parts of the district where the need has been identified. In addition we promote campaigns during school holidays so that disadvantaged children have opportunities to eat even when they are not at school.

"Kirklees schools are committed to providing good quality meals as this is as a vital part of helping children enjoy the best start in life.

"Our priority is to keep the cost of the school meals service within the household budget of all parents while also achieving the highest levels of quality and choice."

During the House of Commons debate, Jim Shannon of the DUP said: "Children are suffering for their parents’ financial position.

"Through no fault of their own, children are sitting in school classes hungry and unable to concentrate. When you are hungry, you are unable to concentrate."

Shadow Minister for children and families, Steve Reed, said: "It is important to find out how much money is not spent and what happens to it, so that it can be redirected to support the children for whom it was originally intended.

"One way of tackling child hunger would be to introduce universal free school meals for all primary school children, paid for by removing the VAT exemption on private school fees, as proposed in Labour’s manifesto."

"Certainly not the children for whom it is intended."

But Mr Zahawi responded: "Schools absolutely have the freedom to do this if their local arrangements allow for it.

"Indeed, Carmel Education Trust in the north east has adopted the practice...we should look into the matter to see how we can get all schools to adopt a similar practice, if they can."

Children and families minister Nadhim Zahawi has said councils could re-direct the unspent cash. (Image: PA)

He added: "Last year, more than 1 million disadvantaged children were eligible for and claimed a free school meal, and that important provision has recently been expanded in three significant ways.

"First, in 2014, we introduced free meals in further education colleges.

"Secondly, in the same year, we also introduced universal free school meals to all infant children in state-funded schools. ​

"Thirdly, under our revised criteria for free school meals, which were introduced last April, we estimate that more children will benefit from free meals by 2022 compared with under the previous benefit system.

"In fact, numbers released today show that 1.3 million children are benefiting from free school meals."